Providing grants to colleges and universities is a central function of many corporate foundations. Company foundations are often asked to provide support to educational institutions that train potential employees. And as a recent inquiry to Legal Affairs demonstrates, as long as the foundation’s...

The Council on Foundations is pleased to announce that Jeff West has been named its new Director of Corporate Philanthropy. Jeff joins the Council’s member relations team led by Paula Wolferseder Yabar to help advance the corporate philanthropy field and further support the Council’s corporate...

Data gathered in the 2015 Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations® (CCSF) show that participating private foundations reported an average return of 0.0 percent for the 2015 fiscal year (January 1 – December 31, 2015), down from the 6...

August 2016 includes updates on a peer-to-peer networking event designed exclusively for community foundation members, diving into pressing issues of community leadership, impact investing, and donor engagement. Learn about Berks County Community Foundation CEO Kevin Murphy joining the Council as...

The Council on Foundations’ 2016 Endowments and Finance Summit is just around the corner – Sept. 28-30 – and as co-chair of the convening, I strongly encourage you to register for it! I personally look forward to the summit each year because it’s the preeminent venue for foundation executives to...

August 2016 updates on the Council's Global Philanthropy Program including news about the Sustainable Development Goals, new grantmaking laws and regulations in China and around the world, recent conferences on international philanthropy, and upcoming meeting and events.

For foundations that offer charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs), a new revenue procedure (Rev. Proc. 2016-41) offers a sample provision that may be included in the governing instrument of the trust (CRAT) and provides that the IRS will treat the sample provision as a qualified contingency...

In this issue of Washington Snapshot, you'll find: Your Lawmakers are in Their Home States and Districts!; White House to Host Broadband Summit; Charitable Trusts Available to More People Under New IRS Guidance; Scrutiny of Endowments, PILOTs Grow; UPDATE: Massachusetts Property Tax Exemption...

On August 1, more than three dozen foundations kicked off a nationwide campaign, #ReasonsForHope, to encourage people across the country to break through the darkness and find a path toward our ideals of dignity, equality, and justice.

In this week's Washington Snapshot: Just Announced: Speakers for Upcoming Webinar; Universal Human Rights: What are We Sharing Across Borders?; DAFs, Incapacity & Powers of Attorney; Special Sessions Called to Address Unbalanced Budgets; Election-Year Nonpartisanship Under Scrutiny;...

When I noticed late last year that the Council on Foundations’ annual conference would focus on climate change, I was delighted. For The Fund for New Jersey and other place-based funders, climate change has been a daunting challenge.

The SDGs are a framework that challenges all of us, working both in human rights and across sectors, to think differently about how our work in the US and abroad is interlinked. But do we even speak the same language? The closing conference session on buzzwords challenged us to consider if we are...